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CHRISTIAN BREAKING NEWS: Christian Church Charity, The Pioneer Trust Issues ‘Heartfelt and Sober Apology’ for its Late Founder Gerald Coates’s Behavior toward Young Men [#ThePioneerTrust #GeorgeCoates]

PIONEER’S RESPONSE TO THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW:
https://pioneer.org.uk/independent-review/

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
https://pioneer.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Pioneer-Trust-Review-summary.pdf

FULL REPORT:
https://pioneer.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Pioneer-Trust-Review.pdf

23rd May 2024

The independent review of Pioneer’s past and present ministry practices led by Christian Safeguarding Services (CSS) has been published as an Executive Summary and as a full report. As Pioneer Trust we accept the report and its findings and we are grateful to CSS for the diligent and thorough manner in which they have conducted this review. The review confirmed some things we already knew and revealed some things we didn’t know, providing a much fuller picture for us.

We wanted the review to help us listen and learn. CSS heard from over 30 individuals, most of whom reported being hurt and harmed by inappropriate and damaging ministry practices through their contact with Pioneer. To those respondents we want to thank them for their bravery in telling their stories and offer a heartfelt and sober apology. We are so sorry.
We hope that having your story heard, believed, and validated – together with this apology and a commitment to implementing the report’s recommendations – goes some way towards a measure of healing.

The report provides evidence of a pattern where Gerald Coates’ ministry and pastoral practice fell well short of expected standards and where appropriate boundaries were not respected. This accelerated in the last decade of Gerald’s life, after he had handed on the leadership of Pioneer and after he had written a book called ‘Sexual Healing’ which then became a significant focus of his ministry.

The report reveals a clear pattern of Gerald sharing a prophetic word with a young man and then seeking to establish ongoing contact. If a subsequent meeting occurred, he would greet them with an uninvited ‘holy kiss’ (a kiss on the cheek) and then quickly move into a conversation where he would ask uninvited and detailed questions about issues around pornography and masturbation. Most of Gerald’s interactions were with young adults he met at conferences and other public gatherings but on occasions he used social media to connect and share prophetic words. There were two, possibly three in their mid teens and one aged 12-13 years old, who it appears was contacted directly via social media. This behaviour would, both now and at the time that it occurred, be regarded as a safeguarding concern that should have been raised with the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).

We also acknowledge the report’s statement that it is important to recognise that due to Gerald’s death in 2022, his voice could not be heard and it is therefore impossible to judge his motives and intentions.

As Pioneer Trust, we attempted to address the concerns that we knew about, which extended over a number of years as we sought and followed advice from Thirtyone:eight (formerly CCPAS) our external independent safeguarding advisors. However, we acknowledge that our efforts and interventions as Pioneer to address and modify Gerald’s behaviour were not as effective as we hoped and were ultimately insufficient. Again we offer our sincere apologies in this respect, and we commit to learning from this situation.

We recognise the real challenge to all of us in leadership roles within the Church as we humbly assess our own failures and areas of brokenness and welcome the necessary accountability and challenge to prevent any harmful or unhealthy cultures or ministry practices around us.

As a board of trustees and as a National Leadership Team, we are committed to learning from and implementing the review’s recommendations. We have already begun to work on our policies and procedures to ensure the highest standards of safeguarding are in operation across the activities of Pioneer Trust itself and not just within the churches connected with us. We also need to do some work around bringing greater clarity and definition on the relationship and responsibilities between Pioneer and its member churches.

We are praying that all these learnings will help Pioneer in all of its expressions to reflect more of the nature and character of Christ.

Ness Wilson [Leader of Pioneer’s National Leadership Team]
Steve Clifford [Chair of the Board of Trustees]

The Pioneer Trust, a Christian church charity, has apologized after a safeguarding report revealed that its late founder repeatedly engaged in “concerning” and “inappropriate” behavior toward young men and boys.

The charity, which runs a network of churches across the UK, commissioned Christian Safeguarding Services to perform an external and independent safeguarding review after concerns were raised about Gerald Coates’ patterns of inappropriate behavior, who died in 2022 at the age of 78.

The review heard from 30+ people who had interaction with Coates, including some teenage boys.

The report, which was released last week, identified a “discernable pattern of behavior” in which Coates approached young men, frequently after a public meeting, and shared a prophetic message with them.

He would then try to establish contact with them by offering mentoring or spiritual leadership development, according to the report.

This took several forms, including handing them his business card, exchanging phone numbers, and then finding them out on social media, usually through Facebook Messenger.

According to the report, Coates would approach young men he had never met in person over social media and attempt to establish regular relationships.

It goes on to say that Coates approached people by implying that he might be a “father figure to them and that he believed God called him to this”.

The study also found that Coates frequently welcomed young men with a “holy kiss” on the cheek without their permission or explanation, sometimes accompanied by a biblical reference.

According to the report, some of the review respondents “felt violated” by this act, but they were also “unable to object”.

The review discovered that, while young adults were the most likely to report this behavior, 2 occurrences involved men in their late teens and 1 involving a boy aged 12 to 13, who appeared to have been approached via social media.

The Pioneer Trust announced that it has accepted the report and its findings.

It also acknowledged that the incident involving the 12- to 13-year-old should have been handled as a safeguarding concern and reported to the Local Authority Designated Officer.

According to a statement issued by Ness Wilson, leader of the charity’s national leadership team, and Steve Clifford, chair, “CSS heard from over 30 individuals, the majority of whom reported being hurt and harmed by inappropriate and damaging ministry practices through their contact with Pioneer.”

“To those respondents we want to thank them for their bravery in telling their stories and offer a heartfelt and sober apology. We are so sorry.”

“We hope that having your story heard, believed, and validated – together with this apology and a commitment to implementing the report’s recommendations – goes some way towards a measure of healing.”

According to the charity’s leaders, the report demonstrates a pattern in which Coates’ ministry and pastoral service “fell short of expected standards and where appropriate boundaries were not respected”.

According to them, the Pioneer Trust “attempted to address the concerns that we knew about” and sought counsel from its independent safeguarding experts, Thirtyone:eight.

They went on to say, “However, we acknowledge that our efforts and interventions as Pioneer to address and modify Gerald’s behavior were not as effective as we hoped and were ultimately insufficient. Again we offer our sincere apologies in this respect, and we commit to learning from this situation.”

The leaders stated their commitment to implementing the review’s 14 recommendations, which include a “rigorous self-audit” of all the charity’s safeguarding arrangements, a thorough review of its policies and procedures, a plan to embed safeguarding into the organizational processes and culture, and the development of a robust code of conduct and ministry practice standards.

A Charity Commission spokesperson said that the Pioneer Trust’s trustees told them of “incidents of historic abuse at the charity involving its founder” last year.

They stated, “We are clear that safeguarding should be a governance priority for all charities.”

“As part of our engagement, the trustees informed us of steps they were taking to address the harm caused and to prevent this from happening again – this included an independent review.”

According to the spokesperson, the regulator expects the trustees to act on the review’s recommendations to “ensure the charity is a safe and trusted environment”.

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Christian Church Charity: ‘HEARTFELT AND SOBER APOLOGY’ FOR LATE FOUNDER’S BEHAVIOR TOWARD YOUNG MEN | Christian Breaking News!